Search Results for: change

September 23, 2015

Commission welcomes appointment of new diversity champions ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Public Sector, Workplace

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has welcomed the announcement of four new Whitehall diversity champions to help the Civil Service become more representative of modern Britain. In a National Audit Office report earlier this year, the NAO said that although Whitehall had made some progress on promoting diversity, it needed to place greater emphasis on departments’ valuing and maximising the contribution of every member of their staff. The report by the watchdog also concluded that the Cabinet Office was not using the data it holds on staff to manage workforce changes and hold departments to account. The new advisers, who include Paralympic swimming hero Chris Holmes, Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012, will work to challenge policies and advise ministers and Civil Service leaders on increasing the numbers of people in the workforce from under-represented groups.

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September 22, 2015

The worldwide demographic timebomb is transforming the workplace ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Wellbeing, Workplace

There are a number of reasons why we shouldn’t be drawn into blindly accepting the narrative about Generation Y’s impact on the workplace. It seems the most important is also the least talked about. It is that the workforce is actually ageing in the world’s leading economies. While it may be true that 27 is middle -aged for employees at technology companies, for pretty much everybody else, shifting demographics, longer lives, improving health, falling pensions and changing personal preferences are likely to mean they stay in the workforce for longer. This is true in both the UK and US, where Millennials may make up the largest demographic grouping in the workplace but are still in a minority within an increasingly diverse workforce. The dynamics of these changes are playing out in different ways in different countries, but the forces are essentially universal.

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September 22, 2015

John Fogarty reflects on a career in office furniture spanning five decades ⁰

by John Fogarty • Comment, Furniture, Workplace design

I was lucky to enter the office furniture industry in 1971, at the beginning of a decade shaped by the explosive advent of new office technology. What had gone before would not have looked that different to anyone who’d worked a corporate office in the 1890s: serried ranks of desks occupied by clerical staff bashing away on manual typewriters and comptometers (calculating machines). Although electric typewriters had been around for most of the century, decades of global conflict had constrained their development. The first major advance came with the launch of the IBM Selectric golf-ball in 1961. Although a beautiful object – I recall this being the first item associated in my mind with the term ‘product design’ by a named designer (Eliot Noyes) – it remained expensive and rare until the price reductions driven by the multi-licensing in 1972 of the Diablo daisy-wheel print head.

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September 21, 2015

Five essential office design trends to look for in the near future ⁰

by Tom Brialey • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Workplace design

Since the early Twentieth Century, business leaders have been experimenting with office design in an attempt to improve productivity. From the sea of forward-facing desks imagined by Frederick Taylor, to the infamous cubicle of the late 1960s, to today’s open-plan office, each innovation has said something about our changing relationship to work. In a Gensler survey with more than 2,000 participants, 90 percent of respondents indicated that better workplace design and layout result in better overall performance. The greatest developments of recent times have emerged from the tech giants of Silicon Valley, where businesses have blended playfulness, company culture and the collaborative benefits of open layouts to craft unique and engaging spaces. So where are we headed? Here are five major trends that are likely to have a lasting impact on the way we work.

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September 19, 2015

Quiet at work + Office design and conflict + The on-demand revolution ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, Furniture, Newsletter, Wellbeing, Workplace

In this week’s issue; Dan Callegari lists ten unusual ways to ensure peace and privacy in the workplace; Sara Bean says senior executives are unaware of the effects of ‘change fatigue’ in their organisations; and Mark Eltringham notes a growing acceptance of sit/stand furniture as a standard workstation option. In news; the results of a new study which found men and women are likely to react differently to specific types of office layout; the introduction of the revised version of one of the world’s most popular environmental standards and SMEs fail to embrace effective wellbeing programmes, despite appreciating their role in future growth. And why is there a growing dread of the influx of the latest generation Z into the workplace? Check out our new events page, subscribe for free quarterly issues of Work&Place and weekly news here., You can follow us on Twitter and join our LinkedIn Group to discuss these and other stories.

September 18, 2015

What Robert Frost can teach us about the changing workplace

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Flexible working, Technology

The great Twentieth Century American poet Robert Frost is arguably best known these days for two quotations that have – usually in bastardised versions – entered into common usage. The first is the final verse of his poem The Road Not Taken, and especially the final three lines: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I /I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” The second is a quotation: “The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office”; which should be pinned up in every reception area and is usually rendered as something like ‘when you get to work, don’t leave your brain at the door.’ Both come to mind when you read something like the report entitled ‘Next Generation Working Life’ from Ericsson’s Networked Society Lab.

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September 17, 2015

Growth of on demand economy is transforming work and workplaces ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Some of the key characteristics of the workplace of the near future are starting to crystallise pretty rapidly. In many ways, employees are aware of this to a greater extent than employers, legislators and politicians. For example, this week and over recent weeks Uber has been arguing in courts around the world that its drivers are not employees but are in fact self-employed. This is the shape of things to come. In the UK, around a fifth of the workforce is already freelance or self-employed, something which politicians like to misinterpret as small business, possibly because it makes them look better because they associate it with entrepreneurialism and the prospects of these firms employing other people. The idea this is simply not the case is supported by a new report from software provider Intuit which claims that just 13 percent of British workers think they will be in traditional employment in 2025.

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September 16, 2015

UK pay rates predicted to overtake rest of Western Europe ⁰

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Latest figures from the ONS show that after several years of pay rises at or below the level of inflation, the UK has seen average pay rates grow at the fastest rate since 2009. Unemployment rates are unchanged at 5.5 percent compared with February to April 2015 but lower than for a year earlier (6.2 percent). Comparing May to July 2015 to a year earlier, both total pay (including bonuses) and regular pay (excluding bonuses) for employees in Great Britain increased by 2.9 percent. According to the latest Salary Budget Planning Study from Towers Watson’s, this upward trend will continue, with British workers set to enjoy a boom in real-terms pay increases in 2015. The study, primarily covering private sector companies, shows that average UK pay rises of 3 percent, coupled with record low annual inflation of 0.2 percent, will outstrip those enjoyed by workers in all other major European economies.

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September 16, 2015

Updated environmental standard improves link to business strategy ⁰

by Sara Bean • Environment, Facilities management, News, Property

The revised version of one of the world’s most popular environmental standards aims to improve the link between business strategy and environmental issues and encourage a stronger focus on life-cycle thinking. the updated ISO 14001:2015 has responded to a number of current trends, such as an increasing recognition by companies of the need to factor in both external and internal elements that influence their impact, including climate volatility. Other key improvements in the new version include a greater commitment from leadership; an increased alignment with strategic direction; greater protection for the environment, with a focus on proactive initiatives; more effective communication, driven through a communications strategy and an increased emphasis on life-cycle thinking, considering each stage of a product or service, from development to end-of-life.

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September 15, 2015

Rapid growth in the number of offices converted to residential use ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, Knowledge, News, Property

The 2013 introduction of new laws which allow greater scope for the conversion of UK offices to residential use is now beginning to have a major impact on the commercial property market, according to a new report from the British Council for Offices (BCO). According to the study, which focuses in particular detail on London and Bristol, more than 6 million sq. ft. of office space was converted to residential use last year following the launch of Permitted Development Right (PDR). This is likely to increase dramatically over the next few years, especially in the capital. A report published last year by Lambert Smith Hampton claimed that there had been a huge leap in applications following the introduction of the new laws and the BCO study confirms the existence of pent up demand from the number of approved schemes yet to be implemented.

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September 11, 2015

London’s allure for Millennials is less than it was, claims report ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Workplace

The allure of London for Generation Y appears to be fading, according to a new report from Lloyds Commercial Banking. According to the study of 200 Millennials and 400 SMEs, the most talked about Generation appears increasingly happy to work for a small firm, wherever they are located. The survey claims that relocating to London is not on the agenda for half (51 percent) of Millennials, who would be happy to move anywhere for the right job. Over a third (35 percent) don’t want to move away from home, while less than a tenth (eight percent) insist they will only work in the capital – which the report claims is good news for SMEs located outside of London (assuming they want to employ Millennials in the first place, obviously). According to the report, location ranked seventh on the list of factors that would attract Millennials to a business.

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September 10, 2015

Shared office ruling could cost Scottish firms millions more in rates ⁰

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, Legal news, News, Property

Large firms that occupy several separate floors in a prime office may need to pay tens of thousands of pounds more in rates, property managers have been warned. The decision by the UK Supreme Court on business rates in shared office buildings will lead to higher fees for many businesses in Scotland, according to commercial property experts at Colliers International. The firm says that the case of Woolway Valuation Office v Mazars, in which the Supreme Court held that businesses occupying space across several floors should pay separate rates for each, will lead to changes in valuations across the country that will cost firms millions of pounds. Up until now, such arrangements were charged as a “single occupation” and benefited from economies of scale. Paying for two separate sets of rates is likely to be more expensive, and the court decision even allows for the changes to be implemented retrospectively.